Father accused of shooting 17-year-old son during argument

MOBILE, Ala. -- A Mobile man remained in the Mobile County Metro Jail today charged with first-degree domestic violence after his son was shot in the chest, police said in a news release.

Travis Monroe Hawkins, 40, is scheduled for a court appearance Wednesday, according to jail records.

About 7:30 p.m. Monday, police responded to a domestic shooting in the 300 block of Bourgeois Circle, officials said. They found a 17-year-old male with a gunshot wound to the chest, police said. The victim was taken to the University of South Alabama Medical Center with injuries that were not considered life-threatening, officials said.

Police said that the victim and his father had been arguing and the father took out a handgun and fired it into the floor. The two went outside the house and continued to argue, police said. The father discharged another shot into the air, police said. The victim tried to take the handgun from his father “and that’s when he shot his son and left the scene,” Officer Christopher Levy, police spokesman, said.

Police did not say what the argument was about.

“(The son) went through surgery and he’s supposed to make a full recovery,” Levy said. The victim remained in the hospital today, Levy said.

At 10 p.m. Monday, the father called 911 to turn himself in, police said. The father was picked up at the dead end of Howells Ferry Road at Big Creek Lake and taken in without incident, officials said. The weapon used in the shooting — a 9 mm handgun — was recovered, Levy said.